The Other OTHER me
by Lucy Ashlyen Swifty
Summary: "Ladybug?" "Yes, Chat?" "What if I had a third identity?" "What do you mean?" "Like an identity outside of Chat Noir and the person behind the mask. Something scary. . .dark and . . . Dangerous." A slow-paced Miraculous Ladybug romantic dramedy Fanfiction. Supernatural/Sci-fi elements heavily included in fic. Cover art isn't mine.
1. The Amulet

**Chapter 1: The Amulet**

 **Adrien**

"Plagg, have you seen my stylus?" Adrien asked. He had searched his sleeping quarters, the study, and even the game room multiple times this morning and still could not find his missing stylus. He needed to find it soon or he would be late for school. His class was meeting at the museum today and he needed it to take notes with his tablet on the exhibits for a reflective essay that would be due later in the week.

"Plagg?" He asked again. No answer. _Great_ , Adrien thought. The Camembert-loving ball of sarcasm was nowhere to be found either. He pushed himself off the ground, as he had just checked under the bed and did not know where else to look.

"Plagg!" Adrien called again, this time more harshly than before. He heard a stifled yawn coming from the closet. The closet! Adrien had not thought of looking there! A sleepy Plagg emerged from the slightly cracked doors of his closet.

"Plagg, have you seen my stylus?" Adrien questioned.

Slow to reply, Plagg rubbed his eyes in a groggy manner. "What's a stylus?"

Adrien face-palmed. "The electronic pen I use on my school tablet," he sighed, "Have you seen it?"

"Oh, that thing." Plagg turned around and lazily floated back into the closet. "You left it just lying around yesterday, so I thought you didn't want it anymore and used it to make myself a cosy cottage. You know, for those little cat naps I like to take." He led Adrien to a corner shelf in Adrien's closet to reveal a kwami-sized hut made of a few select items Adrien had 'lost.'

"So _that's_ where all my things have been!" Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Just because I left it on the table doesn't mean I didn't want it any more, Plagg."

There was a knock on the door and Adrien heard Nathalie enter his room. "The limo is ready to take you to the Museum, Adrien. Are you almost ready?" Her voice echoed throughout the large perimeters of his sleeping quarters and into his closet.

"Yes, just give me five more minutes!" Adrien answered from the large wardrobe. "Just, uh, deciding on which shoes to wear. . ."

Nathalie remained quiet for a moment before reponding. "Okay, well just come outside when you're ready Sir."

Adrien remained silent until he heard Nathalie exit the room, then preceded to lecture Plagg. "Most people keep things out in the open if they plan on coming back to them. You can't just claim everything you see laying out." Out of anger and frustration, Adrien harshly pulled the stylus from Plagg's tiny architectural creation, causing it to tumble.

"Hey!" Plagg protested. "I worked hard on that." He flew over to the pile of Adrien's objects that was once his little cottage and shot Adrien a look of dissaproval.

"Yeah, with _my_ things!" Adrien discarded Plagg's nasty look and stormed out of the closet to put the stylus in the clip on his tablet. "I've had enough of this today Plagg, let's go." And with that, he stormed out of his room, through the house, and into the limo.

●○Miraculous○●

When the limo pulled up to the museum entrance, Adrien saw his classmates gathered outside. He stepped out onto the sidewalk and was instantly greeted by his best friend.

"Sup Adrien," Nino dropped his phone in his pocket and held out his fist for a fist bump.

"Good morning Nino," Adrien replied and returned the fist bump. "I wasn't the last one to get here, was I?"

Nino waved nonchalantly. "Nope, we're still waiting for Chloè. I bet she just wants to make an entrance, like she always does."

"Oh, come on Nino, Chloe isn't _that_ bad."

Nino responded by shashaying around Adrien in a mocking manner. "I'm Chloè Bourgeois" Nino cocked out a hip and placed a finger on his overly - puckered lips. "I get what _ever_ I want,"

"Um. . .Nino. . ." Adrien attempted to catch the attention of his silly friend, but with out prevail.

"When _ever_ I want it"

" Nino. . ." But Nino disregarded Adrien's attempts and continued his charade.

"and you have to do what _ever_ I say or else my daddy,"

"Ni. No." Adrien attempted for the final time to get his friend's attention.

"the _mayor_ of _Paris_ , will. Sue," Nino twirled flirtatiously to finish off his performance, "you." Unfortunately, Nino had landed face-to-face with the blonde-haired brat herself. "C-Chloè!"

Chloè dissaprovingly pressed her pointerfinger against Nino's forehead and then quickly applied pressure, which resulted in both pushing Nino away and causing him to lose his balance and tumble to the ground. "Impersonation of the mayor's daughter. I could put you in jail for that, however since it was an unbelievably awful attempt, I don't think I tell my father _today_. Next time you _won't_ be so lucky. Sabrina! My finger!"

On command, Sabrina pulled out a handkerchief and used it to delicately wipe off Chloès finger. "Is that good, Chloè?"

"Just make sure you get all the peasant germs off of it." Chloè huffed. After a minute or two, she snatched her finger back and charged toward Adrien. "Adrikins!" She latched her arms on to Adrien's neck and pressed her chest in to his arm.

Adrien did not know what to do, so he just let Chloè stay leeched onto him like an expensive perfume smelling parasite. After all, she was his _first_ and _only_ friend before he started going to school. Even though she was a bit annoying and constantly rude to everyone, he could not just throw her away, he would always tell Nino. To which Nino would always respond 'You're just too nice, Adrien.'

Nino was pretty accurate about that statement in most ways. Though, Adrien had not been the nicest to Plagg this morning. The little kwami could not be expected to know everything. _I'll appoligize to him as soon as we get somewhere private_ , Adrien decided.

"Alright class," announced the teacher, "everyone is here, so find a partner."

Adrien watched as his classmates divided into pairs. It seemed that everyone was with their usual desk buddy. Well, everyone except Chloè, who seemed to still be clinging to him.

"We're partners right, Adrikins?" Chloè laid her head on his shoulder and purred slightly.

Adrien lightly shook Chloè off his shoulder. "Actually, I already promised Nino I'd be his partner. Sorry, Chloé."

Chloè retracted herself from Adrien's proximity. "Whatever," she huffed, turning her head away from him and sticking her nose in the air. She stood still for a moment before she grabbed Sabrina's wrist and disappeared into the crowd of chatting classmates.

Adrien opened his mouth to continue his conversation with Nino, but was interrupted by the teacher's clapping to grab the attention of her class once more.

"Alright, that's enough." She clasped her hands together. "Is there anyone who doesn't have a partner? If so, please raise your hand." She paused for a moment and waited to see if any of her students raised their hands. Of course, because the class was pretty cliquish, partners stayed pretty consistent in paired projects. The only reason why a person wouldn't have a partner would be if their usual buddy was absent. Even then, absences were rare. "No one? Okay, good!" continued the teacher. She then stepped to the side to reveal a tall man standing behind her.

He was tall and lanky, but had an air of certainty to him. His amber hair was long and styled with intentional messiness, however it seemed to suit him. He had a thick but finely trimmed mustache over his upper lip and large circular glasses that magnified his emerald green eyes. He wore a cool grey button up that sported the museum's fancy employee emblem and long khaki slacks, who's cuffs lightly kissed the top of his freshly shined architecture boots.

"Class, this is Monsieur Bellerouge," introduced the teacher. "He will be our museum guide today. If you ever have any questions, feel free to raise your hand during the tour and he will try to answer your question to the best of his ability. Monsieur Bellerouge?"

Bellerouge stepped forward and flashed a friendly smile to his audience. "Good morning class," he began. "As your teacher said, I am Monsieur Bellerouge. I work here as a museum guide and occasionally set up exhibits that I've helped contribute to." He pulled out a museum pamphlet from his back pocket and pointed to a highlighted area on the floorplan. "Today we will be going through the ancient history division."

A collective groan was emitted from the class.

"But," Monsieur Bellerouge held up a finger, "since I helped set it up, I have the permission from the museum curator and your teacher, that if we move through the exhibits quickly without a lot of problems, then I can give your a preview of our upcoming specialty exhibit: supernatural artifacts."

Excitement buzzed through the class as students began predicting what would be inside the exhibit. Some classmates expected skeletons of mythical creatures, while others assumed it would be a room full of random items and fictional information videos. No matter who thought what about what would be inside, it was still exciting and inspired the class to satisfy their curiousity.

"One more thing," Monsieur Bellerouge added, "your teacher has specifically instructed that if we do have time to explore the supernatural exhibit, that you are not allowed to write your reflection essay on it." He waited a moment for a reaction but it did not seem to damper on the class's excitement. "Alright now, we are going to go inside, so please pay attention to me and stick close to your partner!"

The class shuffled inside the building like a herd of excited sheep. Muffled voices echoed through the main hall of the musuem. They were then led into a hallway labeled "Hall of Ancient History." The hallway took them to the first exhibit room which featured Stone age sets and displayed stone artifacts and pictures of cavedrawings.

Monsieur Bellerouge stood in front of a giant glass window that showed the stereotypical scene of cavemen discovering fire. He cleared his throat and began a prescripted speech. "The stone age is one of the most mysterious time periods as it is also one of the earliest for mankind. It is believed that at this point in time, humans had almost completely split from the monkey in the evolutionary tree to its own species and by the end of this age mankind was probably 99% genetically close to the current evolutionary state of modern man. It was also assumed-"

"Exc _use_ me! Monsieur Bellerouge?" Chloè waved her arm in the air obnoxiously.

"Yes, Mademoiselle. . ."

"Bourgeois," Chloè said quickly. "Are you saying we evolved from _monkeys_?"

Bellerouge adjusted the collar on his shirt. "It is believed so, as we share a very large amount of DNA."

"Well, then, if that's the case, Monsieur Bellerouge, I think some people might have evolved more than others." Chloè shot Marinette a satisfied look and snickered.

Adrien watched as his poor black-haired, blue eyed classmate dropped her jaw at the insult Chloè had just thrown at her. Thankfully, Alya was able to prevent World War III from breaking out by calming Marinette down. He had no clue why Chloè and Marinette were at it so often or why Chloè made Marinette her favorite target for insults, but he just wished the two girls would chill.

Monsieur Bellerouge resumed his informative speech, so Adrien decided to take notes on the exhibit with his tablet. Once the class was finished with the stone age room, they moved on to the room over the ancient Middle East, then to Rome and so on.

The morning droned on. Even though most of exhibits and displays were quite facinating, standing and listening to a man ramble off historical facts for minutes on end was draining. They were currently three-fourths of the way through their tour, but the class had stopped for a ten minute bathroom and water break next to the ancient Asia exhibit. Most everyone was taking a break, but Marinette was still jotting down information on her tablet and asking Monsieur Bellerouge a plethora of questions concerning ancient Chinese history.

Adrien chuckled lightly to himself. When Marinette was not babbleing like a baby in front of him, she was actually kind of cute. Not as cute as Ladybug of course, but cute enough to catch his attention on occasion. He watched as Marinette excitedly took notes from Monsieur Bellerouge's lengthy answers. He couldn't blame her though, Marinette being half Chinese. Anyone would be excited to learn about their family history. Too bad Adrien did not know what his was, as his father had kept his ancestry a black hole and probably intended to keep it that way.

Nino plopped down next to Adrien on the bench he was sitting on. "Man, Adrien," Nino started, "this tour is cool and all, but I'm really pumped about this supernatural exhibit! What do you think could be in it?"

"Dunno, Nino. What do you think?" was Adrien's reply. Nino began to ramble off predictions, but Adrien did not pay attention. He did wonder what could be in that exhibit. Could it be about the miraculouses? Or something deeper? He really hoped that the class would have the time to visit the supernatural exhibit. Something about it was tugging at him, but he didn't know what and that made his curiosity burn hotter.

Their teacher called the class to attention and announced that the break was over and that the tour was running ahead of schedule, so they would have time to visit the supernatural exhibit once they finished the ancient history track. The class excitedly collected together so they could quickly finish the tour and finally get to the real interest in the museum.

Finally, they were lead into the the room that held the supernatural exhibit. The space was large, and much more than any member of the class could imagine. Skeletons of mythical creatures such as Vampires, werewolves, and mermaids were displayed in giant glass cases. To the right of each case was a plaque giving a brief history of the creatures. On the left of each case displayed artifacts that correlated to the each specific creature. In the middle of the room was the most mesmerizing thing of all. A heavily protected silver amulet adorned with a blood red jewel .

"I'll just let everyone look around for a few minutes before I begin my talk on our most prized artifact here: this amulet" Monsieur Bellerouge stated as he gestured to the fancy amulet.

Adrien and Nino took their time looking at each little station examining the things on display. Adrien found everything fascinating, but he did not know whether or not he believed the things the plaques said. Kwami existed, so why say that these creatures could have existed? Adrien did not know and he did not feel like persevering on that at the moment. For some reason, the amulet stayed in the back of his mind. There was something about it that kept calling to him and he could not figure out why.

Finally, the class was gathered around the amulet display so Monsieur Bellerouge could begin his talk. "Back about a thousand years ago. . ."

Monsieur Bellerouge's voice lulled into the background as Adrien's attention focused on the amulet. It's beauty was breathtaking. He wondered what it would be like to touch it, to hold it in his hands. Scratch that, it was more than wonder, he _wanted_ to touch it. And _it_ wanted him to touch it too. It was calling to him , he could feel it. As if in a trance, Adrien's hand slowly drifted outward as he walked toward the precious jewel.

"Come to me, Adrien," it called.

"I'm coming," he thought, "I'm coming."

"Adrien. . ." it lulled.

He was so close.

"Adrien. . ."

So close he could almost touch it.

"Adrien. . ."

Just a step more and-

"Adrien! Stop!"

Adrien jumped slightly. His hand was just inches away from the protective glass case of the amulet. How did he get so close? Nino was to his left with an exasperated look on his face, whereas to his right was Monsieur Bellarouge, glaring at him with utter disapproval.

"I said 'Do _not_ touch,' Monsieur Agreste. Do you not understand French?"

"No, Monsieur, I understand French perfectly fine." Adrien replied. He looked around and noted the bewilderment on his classmate's faces. "I was, uh, mesmerized by it's beauty and, um, just had a closer look. . ."

"Alright, Monsieur Agreste, just don't do it again, S'il vous plaît." The displeased tour guide gave him a look that showed he did not completely believe Adrien's explanation, but chose not to act on that suspicion. Instead, he began to gather the class together so their teacher could make a few announcements before they were released to go home for the day. Adrien paid no attention to his teacher's words, stuck in a daze.

Once they had been released, Nino tapped Adrien on the shoulder, "Yo, Adrien, what was that all about?" he asked.

"I don't know," Adrien shugged, "got lost in it, I guess. All I know is that I'm never going back there again. After all, it's just some amulet."

Or at least what he thought.


	2. Something Wrong

**Chapter 2: Something Wrong**

 **Marinette**

Ever since they had stepped into the supernatural exhibit, Marinette noticed that Adrien had been acting unusual. She knew because she and Alya had been watching Nino and Adrien from a safe distance. Which was totally not stalking, right? More like. . . admiring from afar?

"I don't know, girl," Alya told her after looking over the blonde haired model, "Adrien looks okay to me."

"There's something off about him, Alya. I just know it." Marinette persisted. Adrien's demeanor had changed as soon as they walked into the room. He seemed engaged, yet distracted and unfocused at the same time. It was almost as if he was putting up an "I'm okay" act.

"Well, why don't you go ask him?" Alya lightly nudged Marinette in the direction of her love interest, I'm pretty sure he would appreciate your concern."

Marinette did not budge. "Now is not the time for you to play match maker, Alya. This is serious," she told her friend.

Alya rolled her eyes and put her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "Okay, then if you're 'seriously' concerned, shouldn't you be asking him what's wrong?"

Marinette brushed off Alya's hands. "Oh, yeah? And how would that go?" She countered. "Something along the lines of 'Hey- okay- Adrien- are - you'?" she pretended to spazz.

"Okay, you got me."

"Why don't we go look at that over there?" Marinette said, changing the subject as she grabbed her friend's hand and swiftly tugged her over to the centerpiece display: a silver amulet adorned with a blood red gem in the middle. "Monsieur Bellerouge said he was going to talk about this in a bit, so I want to get a closer look before the rest of the class crowds in."

"Uh huh," Alya said, not completely convinced on Marinette's excuse. "You just don't want Adrien and Nino to notice that we've been following then the entire time."

Marinette froze as a crimson blush crept upon her cheeks. "Yeah. . . That too. . ." She paused for a moment before saying, "But I seriously do want to look at it. It's beautiful, but super weird at the same time? What does the name card say?"

Alya zoomed in close and read the words aloud: "Amulet of the Vampire King? Weird. . . "

"Yeah. . ." Marinette agreed feeling both confused and amazed. "I wonder what makes it so special though, did it just belong to him or something?"

"Or _maybe_ it has magical properties like Ladybug and Chat Noir," said Alya excitedly.

Marinette sighed. Leave it to Alya to bring up Ladybug in every possible situation. Even though Marinette felt a little weird about her best friend's obsession with her alter ego, she felt it was right to let Alya be the hard core fan girl she was. One, it was compensation for not telling Alya the truth. Two, Alya always listened with Marinette blabbered about Adrien, which happened to be almost all the time.

"Maybe. . ." Marinette responded, though she doubted Alya's suspicion. If it were similar to miraculouses, then wouldn't Hawk Moth be after it? There was no way to know really until Monsieur Bellerouge gave his spiel on it.

"By the way, speaking of Ladybug, " Alya began, "Can I come over tonight? I want to show you some footage I got of yesterday's battle. Plus, I _might_ need help on that reflective essay."

Oh, yesterday's battle. It was quite the adventure. The 'Youth Sucker,' as the akumatized victim had called himself, was a old man who had been made fun of by some rude teenage boys and used his cane to zap the youth of the people around him into himself. Neither she nor Chat Noir had gotten zapped, thankfully, or the rest of the battle would have been quite complicated.

"Oh yeah! Sure! You can probably even stay for dinner!" Oh, wait. _Darn it_ , Marinette thought, _Chat Noir and I have that meeting with Mayor Bourgois and the head of the police department tonight._ Why did being a superhero have to be so hard?"Nevermind. I just remembered I have plans tonight but you can definitely come home with me after school tomorrow. "

"Alright!" Alya exclaimed. She was such a good friend.

At that time, Monsieur Bellerouge had gathered the class in the middle of the exhibit room to begin his informational speech on the amulet. "A thousand years ago," he began, "there had been an ongoing threat of a group of supernatural beings. This clan was made up of vampires. By this time, we had already thinned out their population by ninety percent but the other ten percent also happened to be the strongest of the clan, including the royal family.

"Now the royal family had a special object that all vampires could sense to let them know that they were indeed the royal family. That is this amulet here." Monsieur Bellerouge gestured to the mysterious jewel before continuing. "This amulet is enchanted to where it only accepts the head of the royal family as it's rightful owner and when it does, it magically hides itself in the heart of its bearer."

Marinette watched as Alya raised her hand excitedly. She knew her best friend would find this exhibit interesting. After all, Alya loved anything outside of natural human order.

"So does it do anything else besides mark the royal family?" Alya asked.

Monsieur Bellerouge cleared his throat before answering Alya's question. "Well yes actually. I was just about to start on that. The Amulet holds power of the previous royal family members, so as a member of the royal family bears this amulet, his or hers natural power is slowly transfered from their body to the Amulet, keeping the future royal families stronger. So with the amulet, the royal family is the strongest of all vampires, but with out it the royal family is the weakest."

"So how did our ansestors obtain the amulet?" This time Alya did not even bother to raise her hand as she was too busy taking notes on her tablet.

"Well, the bearer of the amulet can only give up the amulet when he dies, and then the amulet is transfered to the next heir. We were able to capture the king, kill him and then take the amulet before it could go to another member of the royal family. From there we were able to finish the vampiric race to extinction."

"So what were to happen if the royal family still existed?" Alya asked again.

 _This is becoming more of a conversation than a presentation_ , Marinette thought as she chuckled at Alya's excitement.

"Well, since we were able to capture and execute all of the remaining vampires, _including_ those in the royal family," Monsieur Bellerouge made sure to make that last detail clear, slightly shattering Alya's excitement, "It has been concluded from research that if some members of the royal family were to have survived, with out the power of the amulet, they would have over a period of two or three generations, reverted to humans, so unless they got their hands on the amulet, they would stay human. That is _if_ any of the members of the family survied, which is _highly_ unprobable. Now. . ." Monsieur Bellerouge continued to drone on.

This was all so new and mysterious and scary and weird to Marinette that she did not know how to feel, much less whether or not to believe Monsieur Bellerouge. She, along with everyone else had been taught that these kinds of creatures had been nothing but myths or urban legends and having someone tell her and the class that they had once been real was a little confusing.

Marinette looked around to see the mixed reactions of her classmates. Some where excited like Alya, some looked bored out of their minds, some looked amused, and Adrien Agreste looked absolutely mesmerizing. Marinette sighed in contentment as she watched her crush do whatever he was doing. Wait. What _was_ he doing?

"Alya," Marinette nudged her friend.

"What is it? I'm trying to listen," Alya responded sounding rather annoyed and kept her eyes focused on Monsieur Bellerouge and the amluet.

"Take a look at Adrien. I'm serious," Marinette whispered back roughly.

"This better be good." Alya rolled her eyes before turning to look at what Marinette was trying so show her.

Adrien was slowly walking to the middle of the room, eyes focused on the amluet, which was weird because his eyes looked almost as if they were turning a warm brown. His mouth was slightly open in awe and his right arm was beginning to strech forward as if he was reaching out to something.

"He looks like. . ." Marinette's lip quivered in concern as she searched for the right word to describe her love interest's funky behavior.

"He's in some sort of trance. . .," Alya finished, squinting her eyes disbelief.

"Well, what do we do?" Marinette asked. Sure she'd faced some pretty scary things as Ladybug, but nothing was as scary as watching Adrien act extremely strange.

"Leave it to me," Alya said, "let's just hope Nino is paying attention to what's on his tablet." Alya exited out of the notes app on her tablet, pulled up the SMS app, and quickly wrote a message to Nino.

Within seconds, the girls saw Nino read the message. He immediately looked up at Adrien, who at this point was only a couple of feet away from the amulet.

At that moment, Nino's eyes widened in fear as he shoved his tablet and stylus into the hands of the person next to him and quickly jogged over to Adrien. "Adrien! Stop!"

Adrien jolted to a stop, bearing s look of confusion.

Marinette sighed out of relief. It looked like he had come out of it.

"I said 'Do not touch,' Monsieur Agreste. Do you not understand French?" Marinette heard Monsieur Bellerouge say angrily to Adrien.

"No, Monsieur, I understand French perfectly fine." Adrien replied. He confusedly looked around before quickly adding, "I was, uh, mesmerized by it's beauty and, um, just had a closer look. . ."

"Alright, Monsieur Agreste, just don't do it again, S'il vous plaît." Monsieur Bellerouge glared at Adrien with a look of disbelief and unapproval. After that he began to gather the class up so their teacher could have one final word with them before they were released to go home.

Marinette tried to conform to the mob of classmates but could not help but turn her head around to catch another glance at Adrien. Though he seemed to have snapped out of the trance, he seemed to be stuck in a daze.

Marinette's suspicions had been confirmed. There was definitely something wrong with Adrien Agreste.

 **Yo! Sorry I** **didn't** **say anything** **at the end of last chapter. It was so long that I** **didn't** **think** **an Author's note would** **be very nice, soooo I'm doing that here. ^_^**

 **Ok, here's how this fic is going to work:**  
• **I** **will try to keep each chapter between 1500 and 2000 words and I will update bi-weekly until I've sort of established the plot, then I will start updating weekly**  
• **There will only be one perspective** **per chapter and it will mainly be either be Adrien or Marinette.**  
• **To give me feedback on my hard work, you the reader, is asked to comment your opinion in a review.**

 **I'm also trying to write ahead because I know that I will run into writer's blocks. This way, I will be able to update on time if I'm in a hard spot (like right now I'm in chapter 6 and writing my first battle scene EVER *spoiler* and figuring out how to have Chat and Ladybug use their powers to defeat the villain is suuuper hard)**

 **Now that I'm done with all my explanations, I sincerely hope everyone** **is enjoying this fic so far and has a great rest of the day~**

 **Love,**

 **Lucy**


	3. The LAC Communicator

**Marinette**

"Oh, Tikki!" Marinette sighed. "The meeting is soon, what should I do?" She had been pacing around in her room for the past half-hour trying to avoid the inevitable meeting with Mayor Bourgois and the head of the police department.

Tikki, who at first had tried floating next to Marinette while trying to calm her down, was now resting on Marinette's desk. "Just be your normal self, Marinette. I don't really see what the problem is here."

Marinette halted to a stop in front of Tikki. "The problem is, Tikki, that it's the first prototype." She flailed her arms out in frustration. "Ugh, what if it ends up being a total flop?"

"Marinette, you need to sit down and _relax_." Tikki calmly directed.

Marinette stood still, looking like the worried mess she was, but eventually inched over to her desk and stiffly plopped into the chair. At first she seemed to be doing OK, but as the moments passed on, her knees began to shake, the nails on her right hand were being bitten to numbs, and her left hand was yanking at her hair. She was clearly not relaxing.

"Now Marinette," Tikki began in a motherly tone.

"Oh-my-gosh!" Marinette screeched, looking at her clock, "it's time to go! Tikki, transforme-moi!"

The little kwami sighed from the frustration of her friend's unnessecary anxiety as she spun into her red and black miraculous.

Marinette closed her eyes as she felt the all familiar mask coat her face. A certain warmth that began at the tips of her fingers slowly branched out as her suit spread across her arms, over her torso, and down her legs. An expected weigh was placed on her hip as her yo-yo materialized itself around her waist. She was now her famous alter-ego: Ladybug.

"Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go!" Marinette spazzed as she tore her yo-yo off her waist and dived out the window.

● ○Miraculous ○ ●

Marinette glanced at the clock in the wall of Mayor Bourgois' office. Four thirty. It had been thirty minutes, _thirty minutes_ and Chat Noir had still not turned up. Marinette's earlier fear for her presentation had been replaced by worry for Chat Noir. What if something had happened to him? Had an akuma attacked? If so, then no one had notified the police station, which would be very unusual.

Marinette sighed. Lack of communication was the reason this meeting had been called. It also seemed to be the reason it had not started yet either. "Let's give him another ten minutes," she told the rest of the people in the room.

"Who _cares_ about Chat Noir?" Chloe' complained. She sat impatiently in a pink fold-out chair and had spent the past half hour fiddling with her phone, probably shopping online for name-brand clothes that she would end up only wearing once before throwing away or giving to Sabrina. "We've been sitting here for _hours_. And _when_ are you going to take a picture with me? I skipped my weekly mani-pedi for this!"

 _Well it's not like we asked you to be here, you weren't even invited_ , thought Marinette. Gosh she hated Chloe'. She was rude, spoiled, and a number of choice words Marinette was not allowed to say. However, the worst part about Chloe' was that she hung herself all over Adrien when it was _very_ clear that he was _not_ interested in her.

Adrien.

Marinette thought back to his strange behavior earlier in the day. Why were the two important boys in her life both acting strange? Those two were so similar she sometimes thought they might be the same person. Both had green eyes, blonde hair, and were about the same height, but there were also so many differences. Adrien was always quiet, reserved, well kept and a beautiful creature straight from heaven. Chat Noir on the other hand was the exact opposite. He was loud, a boastful flirt, always looked like he got out of bed, and only God knew how many cat puns he made in just _one_ day. Adrien probably had never in his perfect life made puns, much less dumb cat ones. . . Though, there was something that Marinette could not put her finger on about the two. There was obviously some kind of connection. . . Maybe it was just her overthinking. . . yeah, that was probably it. . .

"Sorry I'm late."

Marinette jumped right out of her skin. She had been in such deep thought that the sudden sound of someone speaking had totally startled her. She turned around. It was Chat Noir. His skin was pale and sweaty and his hair looked more disheveled than usual. His cheeks were red and his eyes appeared stressed and weary. He practically shook with every breath as his body heaved trying to get air. He had probably rushed over here in an abnormally fast rate in order to be here later than he already was. "I had a lot on my mind today and lost track of time. Sorry." He mumbled sincerely.

"So, now that everyone is here, we can begin our official business." Said the head of the police department, giving no time for the tired superhero to recover. He dug into his bag and pulled out two tiny boxes. One had the letters 'LB,' which was handed to Marinette, and the other had 'CN,' which was handed to Chat Noir.

Chat Noir took the box with a tinge if skepticism. "What are these?" He asked, still looking completely ragged. He slowly opened the box. Inside was a nicely packed plastic ring. "Ladybug, is this some kind of joke?"

"Well," Marinette began, "When akumas first started appearing, Chat Noir and I were luckly in the area and were able to help right away. As of recent, we have not been able to get to the scene as quickly because we have no way of getting informed about the akumas unless we hear it from our peers or on the news. That's why I created these." She held up her ring to show it to the tiny audience in the room. "This is the first prototype of a gadget I call the Ladybug and Chat Noir Communicator, or LAC communicator for short."

Marinette looked around the room. Chloe' looked like she could care less, Mayor Bourgois and the police department head seemed statisfied but curious for more information, and Chat Noir looked skeptical but mostly recovered from his physical state.

"So," she continued, "these rings are wirelessly connected to a system in the police station. Every time there is a report of an akuma, the button is to be pressed. These rings will vibrate and alert Chat Noir and I. This way there won't be a repeat of previous incidents where an akuma has run around town for several hours before we even know that it's there." Marinette took a deep breath and turned to directly face Chat Noir. " I know that there are still a lot of holes in this system and a lot of questions that haven't been answered but I would appreciate it if you tested it out with me so I can draw up a design for a second prototype. Could you do that for me Chat?"

Chat Noir stood still for a moment a tiny blush creeping across his face. "Yeah, of course," He said, looking at the ground and shyly rubbing the back of his neck. "One question though, L.B.," he said, regaining his composure. "Why a ring? I already have one, so wouldn't it look weird to wear two? Also, you're the one who is so persistent on keeping our identities a secret. Wouldn't this give us away to each other? Plus," he took the ring out of the box and put it on his pointer finger, in which it very noticeably hung very loosely. "Isn't it a bit big?"

"I thought about that all already, _Chaton_." Marinette teased confidently. She smirked silently to herself. It wasn't every day she had the chance to put Chat Noir in his place. The arrogant blockhead was always getting on her nerves anyways. "It doesn't go on our hands at all. It's actually a _toe_ ring."

Chat Noir's jaw dropped and Marinette swore she saw his face turn a few shades lighter. "T-toe? A toe ring. A _toe_ ring?"

Marinette shifted her weight so she could boldly put her hands on her hips, as if to make her point. "Yes, a _toe_ ring. The foot is one of the only reasonable places to hide something."

"Yeah. . .right. . ."

"So will you wear it?" She persisted.

Char Noir eyed the clock. In a matter of seconds, his demeanor became antsy. "Yeah, sure, anything for you, Ladybug. But look, I gotta go," he said as he threw the ring back in the box, closed it up and climbed up into the open windowsill he had entered in the room through only a mere ten minutes ago. "Cya later."

And with that he was gone.

 **Hey! Lucy Ashlyen here~**

 **I'm guessing that if you've read this far, it means you like the story. That makes me happy. What did you think of the LAC Communicator? I wanted the first prototype to be something absolutely ridiculous because I have a wonderful comedic scene planned out for it's first use (MWAHAHAHAHA)**

 **ALSO don't forget to vote if you liked this chapter and comment your thoughts/questions/predictions. Thank you!**

 **Love,**

 **Lucy Ashlyen**


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